I've gotten back into Skyrim again. I finally did some insane armor and weapon crafting using the stacking of enchanting and alchemy. I still want to figure out some of my perks before I enchant any of my Daedric super-weapons that I've made.

I got the Hearthfire DLC, and I've already got my home mostly pimped out. There are only a handful of upgrades left. I have to say, it's nice to have basically everything in one place. It sure took a long time to transport all of my stuff from my houses in Whiterun and Solitude. In fact, I still have dragon bones and dragon scales in my Whiterun home to take to Lakeview Manor.

I don't know if I'll do any adopting of children. I haven't really read what advantage, if any, there is to that.

Some of the bugs that are preventing me from finishing certain quests or using certain items are getting annoying. I don't relish the thought of starting a new game at this point, but it could happen.

Well I figure I will give my first impressions of Dishonored since APS (the electric company) just killed my power to replace my meter ungracefully shutting down my A/C, projector, HDTV, receiver, 4 computers and NAS just to name a few that are most sensitive to such things.

On a good note the game Dishonored is excellent so far. It starts out with a short intro to set the stage which like all other cut scenes so far can be skipped, (learn something Skyrim). Part of the intro is a basic tutorial which teaches you the basic mechanics but is also short and sweat and part of the storyline. You learn more about how to do things in the first level some of which is shown to you and other parts left up to you to figure out.

While much is intuitive you have to unlearn some of what other games have taught you. You canít just hide in a shadow in plain sight like in Skyrim you need cover. Many more things are climbable or walkable than you first realize. A locked door can be bypassed rather than hunting all over for a key. The fastest way between two points is seldom a straight line. Overall I really like the mechanics so far as they give much more control over your character like climbing a chain which you control rather than just being dumped up on the next height. Combat is somewhat self regulated in that ammo is not plentiful.

Although the overall path you must follow is linear how you follow it is not. You can do as much or as little as you want. However, picking up and reading notes gives you clues to things as does eaves dropping on conversations. Itís odd to play a game where half the fun is just sitting quietly. Also normally useless objects like empty bottles provide excellent distractions. A dead body dumped in the right place can lure away a pack of rats blocking your path. The game constantly drops hints about how to use things in the world by allowing you to watch things happen rather than just throwing popups in your face. This game does as much as it can to keep you immersed.

Iíve only played through the first two levels but plan to restart since Iíve caused way more carnage than necessary due to learning what I was doing.

Thought folks here might be interested. A few weeks ago, I was invited as a Club Nintendo member to the San Francisco Wii U Preview event. TBH, I wasn't really sold on the system but it actually changed my mind. Coming into it, I had low expectations.

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OK, here goes. Via Club Nintendo, I got on the Wii U Experience invite list. I took my 2 kids and their cousin to demo the system and a bunch of games in San Francisco. Very cool experience.

EntranceI pre-registered but somehow my confirmation got stuck in a SPAM filter. Finally figured it out though. When we arrived, we all got badges to connect us to some photos they took. They corralled us together before entry, making it more exciting to enter the room.

There were kiosks all over, showing off different games. I'll give impressions from what I can remember and played.

Wii U SportsThey were showing this game with the Wii Fit Board. I wasn't that interested but my nephew pretty much lived at this game station.

NintendoLandI didn't get to play many of the worlds but I did play the Metroid area with my kids. They used the Wiimotes so I could get some hands on with the Gamepad. I'll give details on that below. Regarding gameplay, it was more fun that I would've thought. I flew the ship while shooting the kids' characters on the ground. You use the 2 sticks to control direction and rising/falling of the ship. You also move the controller around to change view on your screen. My view was completely separate from the kids, like I was playing a completely different game. Definitely a bit disorienting, mostly because it's not what you'd expect from a gaming experience. There's some potential there with the gameplay mechanics.

I also played the Pikmin-oriented game, mostly because I'm a HUGE Pikmin fan and still PISSED nothing ever came on the Wii. There were 5 of us (including the gamepad) and we moved together to break down objects to get to the boss area (I think). This was the first game I played walking in so I didn't get to pay too much attention as I was a little overwhelmed at first by the crowd and watching my kids.

Super Mario Bros UThe first thing I noticed was the graphics. You could tell immediately that it was playing at 1080p. I wouldn't think it would be a big deal but it was. TBH, I might consider a Wii U just to play at this higher res. Granted, the Xbox 360 and PS3 already do this...so it's sad we had to wait this long to enjoy it. The demo guy explained that the 5th player on the Gamepad could create blocks to help the other 4 get to other places on screen. In practice it seemed pretty cool. I was able to pick up the new acorn power up but couldn't get a good hang of it with the little play time I had. Other than VERY VERY good graphics, not much of the gameplay seemed much different that the past few games (including the 3DS). But I suppose it's a formula that works. The interesting feature was that you could still play this game only the Gamepad, thereby allowing everyone else in the room watch TV at the same time. Apparently, many games will have this feature, which seems 'kind' of cool if you have family arguments of who gets to use the TV for their purposes.

Scribblenauts UnlimitedI played this a little. The graphics again were fantastic, granted it's more cartoony so that's not a hard thing to achieve. I love Scribblenauts but I honestly wasn't that grasped by the new gameplay which is more of the exploration type vs the straight out finish a puzzle and then move on. This is one of those games where you can play just on the Gamepad, where the graphics look very good. This was definitely beta s/w because I made it crash and they had to reboot it...

Pikmin 3Better graphics once again. Took me a while to remember the controls. I watched many play the standard collection mode. They added a new rock Pikmin that are used to break crystal structures. Very much the same gameplay as previous games. When it was my turn, I opted for Boss Battle to try something different. I still like this game and look forward to seeing what other new features are there. The Gamepad is used to scan the entire planet map to plan out your routes, a feature I can see as very helpful in these type of games.

Game & WarioThis was a nice surprise. I've always loved Warioware games on the DS and Wii. This is apparently made up of about 12 minigames, 4 of which were playable. They had a hide a seek game where one player w/ the Gamepad was a 'thief'. The other 4 players would watch the main TV screen where apples where distributed in a crowd. The thief would then steal them and all 4 players would have to guess the identity of the thief. There's a skiing game where you ski on the Gamepad almost like an iPad. Eh. I played arrow shooting where the Gamepad was a crossbow and you used the touchscreen to load the arrow and move it around to aim. That was actually kind of fun.

Rayman LegendsI didn't play as I normally don't like the series. My son didn't like it either.

Batman ArkhamSeemed interesting but I honestly think the PS3 looks better. I didn't play but the player who did was using the Gamepad in some kind of stealthmode where you could xray your surroundings and use the Gamepad to locate things. That seemed like a natural use of the Gamepad.

Just Dance 4This series is a bit of a favorite in our house. Mostly because it's pretty fun and we work up some good sweat. AND, when you video someone doing it, it's kind of funny taken out of context of the game. With the Gamepad you can add another player who can change the moves in song and also cause a freeze moment. My daughter loved this game.

SingstarNever played it.

Wonderful 101OK, definitely my favorite surprise. It has the most plain sign and now I know why. Seems the original name was PS-100 and it just changed. I was intrigued because the graphics were so clean, intense and very much like a well drawn comic book. The game is almost a mash of Pikmin (you have a group of superheroes w/ their own strengths), Infinity Blade (hack/slash gameplay), and Viewtiful Joe (graphics). I mentioned Viewtiful Joe and the demo guy mentioned this was a Platinum Games title, which apparently has the some of the team members from Viewtiful Joe and Okami. You use the Gamepad to control your team and make moves. I was a bit overwhelmed because the game used the touchscreen, both sticks and the L/R shoulder buttons (and there are 2 on each side). You can use the touchscreen to implement moves like Inifinity Blade on an iPad, but you can also use the right stick to do the same. I LOVED this game, this would definitely be a launch title for me.

Wii U GamepadI made sure to play a few games that used this. The feel in my hands was pretty good, not too heavy, weighted properly when it was in the horizontal position. Bear in mind there are a few games that have you hold is sideways, like Game & Wario. The screen resolutions looks very nice for some games. However, my biggest gripe on the screen is that it felt cheap to touch. The screen 'gives' a little, much like my old Palm Treo 600. Maybe it's a pre-production unit, who knows. At the end of the day, there's really no reason this damn Gamepad couldn't be an app on an iPad or Galaxy Tab. The buttons and sticks could be saved for a revamped Wavebird controller. Combining a controller with a screen is nice but to me, it's adding cost for a novelty that doesn't yet have a need. Remains to be seen if there's a game that justifies this 'marriage'.

3DS XLThey had a stand with a few out for demo with the New Super Mario Bros 2. I do have to admit that it's a MUCH better experience vs my original 3DS. If mine ever breaks, I'll get this. The only negative is that having the dual analog stick would make it the size of a damn laptop.

@ oldskoolboarder Ė thanks for the write-up it sounds like it was a lot of fun. I would love to try out some of that stuff but Iíve told myself Iím not buying another console until the next generation of boxes comes out since at least with the Xbox360 their pushing the limits.

And now for something completely different . . . a Dishonored update.

I think Iíve progressed about half way through the game. Iím taking my time but not trying to do everything since I figure I will play more than once. This is actually my 3rd attempt since the first one was more of a learning exercise and the second wasnít much better. on the 3rd time I made it through the first two areas as ďGhostĒ (or undetected) but havenít fared as well since then. The game seems to be designed that if you want to be a Ghost or even have ďClean HandsĒ (no kills) then almost have to skip some optional areas.

Iíve still managed to keep the carnage, and therefore ďChaosĒ level low which is supposed to affect gameplay but until I play again with high Chaos I wonít be sure how. Iím not sure but think that as long as you donít directly kill someone it doesnít count against you but Iím not positive. I have been operating under that assumption so hacking a turret cleaned out a whole block for me while I hid and watched. Iíve also come back to find rats eating unconscious bodies Iíve hidden and donít think that it counted against me as kills.

Waiting is very much rewarded in gameplay. On many occasions a group of town watch and thugs will fight among each other either causing a distraction if you just want to sneak by or leaving less for you to deal with if you want them cleared out.

Iím getting better at using some of the powers. Blink is awesome. Not only can you find sneaky ways around things you can drop in behind someone choke them out and pop back out again with them over your shoulder. Hiding bodies (dead or unconscious) is important because if some finds one their and possibly other peoples alert levels go up. This seems to make it more likely that someone will spot you. A specific case Iíve noticed is normally you can run around above people without anyone looking up and noticing but if their alert level is raised theyíre very likely to spot you unless you are actually concealed.

So far one of the things I like the most about this game is how simple it is to control your character. There are actually very few things you can do but by chaining these things together you can accomplished very interesting things (seems like using Unix/Linux shell utilities as opposed to some other OS). This puts much of the control into the playerís hands as opposed to the ďtoolĒ (read game) and rewards you for thinking outside the box.

Thnks for the wii u update. I went ahead and pre-ordered one today. Never owned a wii so figures its time. I'm More interested in the new xbox or playstation, but I assume we won't we hear much until 2014 about these.

Thinking ill get zombie u and super Mario bros at launch. Prolly get black ops 2 for 360, since I prefer online games on Xbox.

The new Microsoft console is likely to come out sometime in 2013 and take advantage of the holiday season. 2014 and beyond sounds more likely the timeline for the next Playstation console. Sony always stated they wanted a 12 year life cycle but this might have changed since this far into the consoles life cycle the cell architecture has been a disappointment in terms of game development and technical issues in 3rd party ports. I don't believe the Playstation 3 will be able to compete with the new "xbox" architecture and development tools. Sony will be forced to play their hand.

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Iím armed and Iím drinking. You donít want to listen to advice from me, amigo.

I finally finished playing Dishonored and overall really liked playing it even though it isnít a party based RPG which is more my preference. I tried to maintain a ďlow chaosĒ rating but as the missions went on they got harder to do without some carnage so as some point I just threw in the towel and started going medieval.

In many ways the high chaos play is more fun since it opens up more options and use of toys, however you can still always drop down into stealth mode if needed. Note that once you start upping the chaos staying completely hidden becomes more difficult since the game spawns more baddies. Another nice thing about going high chaos is that you donít have to worry as much about hiding the people you knock out since youíre looking to take people out anyway.

I found that the physics of grenades is pretty realistic in that in the open then tend to wound and knock people down while in an enclosed area the kill more often, nothing like taking out your target you canít see by chucking a grenade through a window and blowing the crap out of him and several henchmen so they canít come after you.

Using the zoom upgrade not only lets you snipe at people from a distance it also ďzoomsĒ in on any conversation theyíre having, and listening to conversations is often worthwhile for clues.

I found that bullets often go through the first target and hit another behind. I also did that once by accident with a crossbow bolt that when through the head of the guy I was sniping at and killed the guy he was talking with.

One note, if you are the obsessive compulsive type that just has to get certain things done to get a particular achievement good luck because some of these mission will drive you nuts if trying to get the clean hands and especially ghost achievements.

I started playing Borderlands 2 yesterday and so far Iím really liking it. I never played Borderlands so I canít compare them, but this one seems pretty darn good.

The first thing I like about this is that unlike all the other shooters Iíve played like Gears of War and the Modern Warfare games this one seems more open in that there are a lot of side missions to keep things from feeling to linear. Thereís no slowing things down with saving all the time since all saves are automatic respawning you at an earlier location. While this could be annoying the game doesnít reset so if you fought your way through an area you donít have to do it again even though you may have to run back/drive back to where you were killed. Also respawning cost you money so there is an incentive not to get killed.

Iím loving the writing and voice acting. Too bad they could get that right with Oblivion and to a lesser extent Skyrim. The near constant banter keeps things interesting, tell some of the backstory, and is often quite funny, a stark contrast to Dishonored which was very gloomy.

From the screen shots I didnít think I would like the animation since Iíve been getting spoiled on things that try to look ďreal,Ē however it turns out Itís actually quite good. It seems to have a very ďHeavy MetalĒ look about it and in some ways also has that sort of feel, though in more of a PG13 way (hell Heavy Metal is probably PG13 these days).

Iíve played for about 8 hours now and so far no crashes, lockups or noticeable glitches. I have a feeling that Iím going to actually enjoy this game more than Dishonored.